One of my recipes I like, but don’t make very often, due to the absence of celery leaves is Udon Noodles with Chicken and Bean Sprouts.
Earlier this week, when I was in the grocery store, some of my fellow shoppers looked at me puzzled “what’s going on with her”? I found celery leaves ….. finally. Nobody sells celery leaves around here, so when I saw a bundle of celery stalks with leaves, basically one that wasn’t cleaned very well, I did a little fist pump ‘yes, finally’, ‘caramba’.
Clearly, my happy dance was a little louder than I wanted; the next thing I know, people staring at me, while I hold a bundle of celery stalks, with a question all over their faces, ‘what is the big thing here? Celery? Hard to explain, I felt a little silly, but then again, to quote Seal in 1991 “we’re never gonna survive, unless we are a little crazy”.
In this Udon Noodles with Chicken and Bean Sprouts, the udon noodles and the bean sprouts almost look the same. Once you’ll take a bite, you will find out that your eyes deceived you. The been sprouts are crunchy; they re not cooked, but blanched. The curry and the soy sauce, give the dish an oriental flavor. The celery leaves are just the finishing touch it needs, adding a hint of fennel and anise.
This Noodle recipe is an Italian-type dish, inspired by Asian ingredients and flavors.
Udon Noodles with Chicken and Bean Sprouts
Ingredients
- 4 ounces Udon noodels
- 8 ounces chicken breast fillet
- 1/2 teaspoon curry powder
- salt and pepper
- 4 sprigs celery leaves
- 3 spring onions
- 4 ounces bean sprouts
- 1 tablespoon sunflower oil
- 1/2 teaspoon chili paste
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
Instructions
- Cook the Udon noodles according to the directions on the packaging. Drain.
- Cut the chicken fillets in small cubes, season with salt, pepper and curry powder.
- Cut the celery leaves fine.
- Clean the spring onions and cut them in thin slices, from the bottom up, until the onion becomes tougher.
- Wash the bean sprouts and poor a kettle of boiling water of the sprouts. Drain.
- Heat the oil and cook the chicken for approx. 3 minutes.
- Add celery leaves, spring onions and cook another 2-3 minutes.
- Add 1 tablespoon of water and toss everything.
- Add bean sprouts, noodles, chili paste and soy sauce and toss again until warm.
- Divide over 2 dishes and sprinkle some with celery leaves.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
2 Comments
graham
June 3, 2018 at 11:10 amif you want to have a ready supply of celery leaves, get some seeds for celery herb/leaf plants, easy to grow, can be grown in pots, seems to be a perennial
Marinka
June 3, 2018 at 2:10 pmHi Graham; You’re so right and I have been playing with the idea of growing veggies and herbs from seed, just didn’t get around doing it – yet.